Fame
by Charlie Waffles
Summary: Light was bored and depressed when his best friend, Ryuk, suggested that he write a book. Now Light's a famous author known as Kira. No one can guess his identity besides one reporter and a model who both have witnessed and experienced horrible things in life. AU. (UP FOR ADOPTION)
1. Author

**Disclaimer: You know what that means...**

When following Ryuk's suggestion to him that he should write a novel, he had had no idea of just what he was getting himself into…

Being a perfect-scoring honors high school student had kept him busy for a while, sure, but nonetheless there was still plenty of time for him to be bored. (And when he was bored, he was _incredibly _bored). Nothing really could hold his interest for long; not sports, games, or even dating. In fact, so many years of suffering this boredom had begun to take a toll on him, slowly but surely causing him to become melancholic.

The melancholy darkened his view of the world and had begun to make him see the world as cruel; as a place that needed to be cleaned up and purified from evil. But there was nothing he could do about it, and the general public, as well as those in positions of power, appeared to have no interest in solving the problems that were running around so rampantly.

The solution to his problem eluded him for so long that he began to feel hopeless. He figured that this world was to be forever doomed to preventable suffering and misfortune.

He wished so desperately to be able to get his opinion out to the world and for people to take his words to heart, or if not that, then for him to be able to fix this world himself.

He knew that neither of these options was likely to ever occur though.

It was not as if he believed in magic and miracles, but he so wished to have some way to bring about good in the world. It was because of this, that when Ryuk suggested to him that he should write a book about his views on the world, that he realized that this was the solution he had been looking for this whole time.

The simplest way to have a large amount of people listen to your views is to become a writer. He knew this to be the case, but he also knew that the only way to get people to _care_ about your views when you are a writer is to be a _very good_ writer; you cannot just be some amateur.

Besides just having to be a talented writer, in order for anyone to give a damn about your opinion, you have to have a convincing argument. The problem for Light was that everyone already _knew_ of what was wrong; they just chose to ignore it. This meant that he had to find some other way of convincing people that the world needed to be reformed.

After thinking for much time, an idea began to form in his head. He decided he would write a book that showed his views of the world and the justice system by writing a story about a pure-hearted boy that decides to cleanse the world of evil and who becomes evil in the process, eventually losing site of his original goal. In a sense the story would be a tragedy so that the ideas held within the book would have a greater impact on its readers.

When Light told Ryuk about this idea, Ryuk laughed and said that he thought the idea was very interesting. To make it more interesting, Ryuk suggested that Light have the main character have magic powers from supernatural origins, and to have those powers be the reason the boy is able to get rid of evil people. Light liked the idea, but thought that magic was just too simple and that there needed to be something dark about the character's powers. Eventually he decided that the main character would obtain the power to kill people from a shinigami. Ryuk agreed that that was a good idea, and suggested that in order to keep the story interesting to the readers, that there should be a super-detective in the book trying to catch the boy and that the boy should have something connecting him to the shinigami, such as a magical item. That way, the story would have even more of a plot, since the boy would have to go against this detective while hiding the source of his powers.

Once Light and Ryuk had come up with enough ideas for the story, Light realized that there was one little problem: What should he name the characters?

After awhile of thinking about it, he decided that he should just go with the names of people he knew, and base the characters off of them. Granted that was not the best thing to do, but nevertheless this was what he decided to do.

When deciding who the main character should be based off of and who the main character's shinigami should be based off of, Light decided that the main character would be based off of himself and that the shinigami would be based off of his best friend, Ryuk. He liked the idea of having the two main characters at that point in time being based off of himself and his friend simply because it would be easiest to do so. He also liked how their last names would work in regards to the characters; Yagami meaning Night God and Shinigami meaning Death God. It suited the characters for the story perfectly in his opinion.

He then decided that, since he wanted the main character to have the source of his powers come from the murder weapon he used, a notebook would be the best choice; that way it was both modern and easily relatable. By having the powers come from a notebook of death, he figured to title the weapon "Desu Noto" (or "Death Note" as it would be called when the book eventually became translated into English).

Since there was no super-detective in this world that he knew of, nor was there anyone he personally knew that could compete with his intelligence, Light decided that he would make up the super-detective. Until he could come up with a definitive personality for the character, he decided that he would simply just show in the first book that a super-detective was working on the case, but not describe how he looked nor show much of the detective's personality.

Because this was to be a book series, Light had the first book end with the main character finding out important information about the "Kira case" (as it was named due to the main character becoming a serial killer) and planning his next step to outwit police and detectives all around the world. This way the book would have an ending, yet it would also contain a cliffhanger.

Due to everything revolving around the main character's use of the "Death Note," the book was titled _Death Note_.

The book only took Light about a month to complete, and overall he found that the finished product suited his tastes. At this point in time, what Light needed to do was find a publisher. Luckily he had a classmate whose father was the head of a publishing company.

When Light asked his classmate, Kiyomi Takada, if she could see about getting her father's company to publish his book, she was skeptical at first, but then she became very excited and interested in helping him out after she finished reading it. Within a matter of a few weeks, _Death Note_ finally was in the middle of the publishing process and Light Yagami had a contract with a publishing company.

One of the many things discussed was the nature of the main character's name, since the author had the same exact name. The publishers wanted to change the main character's name at first, but once Light explained the significance the main character's name had in the series, they allowed the name to remain unchanged. Light explained to the publishers that he didn't want anyone to know his true identity once his book became published, and said that he wanted his pen name to be "Kira," which the publishers were not too thrilled about, yet went along with anyway.

A few months after Light had begun writing the Death Note series, the first book was published, and it quickly gained popularity all over the globe, spreading like wildfire.

All around his school he saw his peers reading the book, discussing the book, and even writing fan fiction for the book. Some of his classmates would ask him how it was that he happened to have the same name as the main character in the book, to which he would simply shrug.

Within a short amount of time, the book had become so popular that t-shirts for the book and fake Death Notes were being sold, and many magazines and shows began to talk about his book. Everyone wanted to know who the mastermind behind this brilliant story was.

Due to how popular the first book in the Death Note series had become in such a short amount of time, Light knew that he would never get any peace if the public were to find out that he was "Kira." Thankfully, Ryuk, Kiyomi, and all of the people who knew of his identity at Takada inc. were able to keep his identity a secret.

It should come as no surprise, however, that the paparazzi and reporters were unhappy with not knowing who "Kira" really was. None of them could find a trail… except for one.

**Author's Note:**

**This story is an obvious AU and it's pretty obvious who the "except for one" is.**

**There are some twists that will occur in this story of course since this is a complete AU.**

**For one thing, Ryuk and Rem are HUMAN in this story. Ryuk is Light's best friend and Rem is Misa's best friend. ****Ryuk and Rem look like human versions of their shinigami selves. Oh, and Ryuk and Rem will be cousins in this story, with the last name "Shinigami".**

**Takada and Light already know each other in this story and are classmates, even though in the original story they don't meet until college.**

**I think you'll find certain characters' occupations to be surprising. If you want to suggest a particular career/job for any of the characters to have, please feel free to do so. You may come up with a better idea than me.**

**Please review. C:**

**V**


	2. Reporter

**Disclaimer: You know what that means...**

Elliot Ryuzaki was a talented reporter that could always find a story. He found the hard-to-find stories of things occurring in celebrities' lives. It didn't matter how well you hid your secret; he would always find out what it was one way or another.

Now, even though he was a talented reporter and he was somewhat famous, he wasn't the most famous reporter at all. He only went searching for stories that interested him, rather than for stories that interested others. As a result, it was difficult for him to keep his job as a reporter.

It was very lucky for him that his parents were rich. (Oh yes, they were filthy rich). Because of this, he never had to worry about anything financial, and he and his other "siblings" lived in the giant mansion their parents owned.

Elliot's parents were both highly intelligent. His father was an inventor, and his other father was a scientist, so they made a lot of money easily.

The question that many people wondered was why these two men adopted children when it was obvious that one of them couldn't stand children, and so many at that. Well, it was because the other man actually wanted children.

Quillish and Roger were a bit on the elderly side by the time Elliot became a reporter, yet they both still did all they could to help their children. Overall, the two men had adopted 9 children. There was Elliot Ryuzaki (the eldest of the children), Rue Ryuzaki (the only one of their children to be locked up in a mental hospital), Eraldo Coil (the most arrogant of the children), Deneuve La Fleur (the kindest of the children), Linda Garman (the only girl they ever adopted), Alan Twist (the only one of their children who ever committed suicide), Michael Kheller (the angriest of the children), Nathaniel Rivers (the most unsociable of the children), and Mathew Jefferson (the most relaxed of the children).

The family was an odd one, as anyone could see, and though there were some problems they all had to endure, life was much better for them all now that they were no longer orphans.

Surprisingly enough, the reason Elliot became interested in becoming a reporter was because Eraldo had spoken to him about all of the crazy stuff occurring in the lives of celebrities. Granted Elliot wasn't one that cared much for gossip, but he did find the stories interesting. Basically Elliot became a reporter because he found people to be interesting, though Eraldo became a reporter for the money (which he made a lot of since he only did stories that could bring him a lot of money).

Deneuve was a different type of reporter than Elliot and Eraldo. Instead of doing stories for selfish reasons, he was the type that did stories so that the world could be informed of all of the bad things going on so that people could get some of the help they very much needed. He spent most of his time in third-world countries helping the poor and helpless, and would listen to their stories like a therapist.

Rue had also tried to be a reporter, like Elliot, but he wasn't that good at it. He didn't know when to stop, and many charges were placed on him as a result. He was too stalkerish and creepy, so no one trusted him, and therefore he was unable to get a story by conventional means. He became insane shortly after Alan committed suicide, because he was much closer to Alan than to Elliot. (Whereas Elliot was who he tried to surpass, Alan was his equal. The two were best friends; attached at the hip since the day they met. They were more like brothers than Rue and Elliot were). After going insane, Rue hurt a few people, never killing anyone though, and was forced to go to a mental hospital.

Alan would have become a psychiatrist had he not committed suicide, but he couldn't handle the pressures brought about by all of the work he had to do in college, the memories of seeing his biological parents murdered right in front of his eyes as a child, and the psychological problems he suffered after having been raped and tortured repeatedly by a former classmate who he had had to kill in order to survive. Alan committed suicide towards the end of the summer, right before classes started up for the fall and a few months after having suffered the latest tragedy in his life. He was found in his bedroom, hanging by a noose, dead, by Rue.

Linda became an artist once Alan died and Rue was locked up in a mental hospital. Her work became quite popular in the world, especially among the Goth community due to the dark nature her art portrayed.

Nathaniel, Michael, and Mathew were the only ones who weren't too connected to all of the previously stated drama. This was probably due to the fact that they were much younger than the other six children. Instead though, they had their own drama. Nathaniel and Michael never were able to get along unless Mathew was around, but even then the air was tense between the two. Constantly Nathaniel and Michael argued, fought, and competed against each other. Both always seemed to feel the need to be number one.

Truth be told, the only reason why Nathaniel and Michael never got along is because Michael always had to start something. Everything could be perfectly calm, but if Michael's inferiority complex was sparked or someone was rude to him, he would unleash his wrath (primarily on Nathaniel). Mathew only had to worry about the wrath being unleashed on him if he didn't follow an order properly, whereas Nathaniel was pretty much screwed no matter what.

Even though Michael couldn't stand Nathaniel, Nathaniel actually didn't dislike Michael. It was odd, but only Mathew seemed to notice this. Mathew suspected that perhaps Nathaniel had romantic feelings for Michael, but he never could find any definitive proof of this being the case.

Mathew got along pretty well with everyone. He didn't really have to deal with any drama and it took a lot to make him upset. So long as he had his books and videogames, he didn't really care about anything else. Even when Michael would go on a long rant about how much he hated Nathaniel, he didn't care. In fact, he believed that Michael probably "hated" Nathaniel due to not being able to accept that he was in love with him. (Again he had no definitive proof though. Mathew pretty much always found a way to assume a person liked another person, even when they didn't).

Interestingly enough, the reason why Elliot made it his mission to find out who "Kira" was, was because Mathew had become a huge fan of the Death Note series (even though only the first book was out at the time).

Because Mathew liked the book so much, Elliot went to find out what he could about the author, which, to his displeasure, was nothing. No one knew who the writer's identity was, only that he was most likely Japanese and male.

This sparked Elliot's interest, so he went to Japan to get his story.

**Author's Note:**

**Right now the story's being told as a narrative simply so I can introduce characters, their relationships, and important information about their pasts.**

**I doubt that the entire story will end up being a narrative, even though there is a possibility of that occurring.**

**V**


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